“Waaah…….”
Yuri, who had come to the seaside, let out a cry of admiration as she gawked at the emerald shimmering waves.
After Kail drove away the Sea Deity, the soldiers of the territory conducted an investigation amidst some commotion and concluded that the Sea Deity had retreated early.
Though they heard a scream from the Sea Deity that they’d never heard before, nothing else seemed to have occurred, so the residents nagged for the coastline to be opened quickly.
Due to the urging of the territorial residents, the soldiers lifted the restrictions on the beach. The residents, who had previously blabbered on about how the Sea Deity was more important than money, eagerly set up stalls by the beach and began trading as if they had been waiting for this moment.
‘They said the Sea Deity was more important than money and now look at them…’
Kail found it absurd but after purchasing a mat, parasol, and beach chair, he headed to the beach with Yuri.
“Kail, hurry up, hurry!”
“Alright, alright. Just setting this up.”
After calming Yuri, who was bouncing ever so slightly in excitement at seeing the beach for the first time, Kail finished setting up the parasol and mat. He marked his spot and then ran towards the sea with Yuri.
Upon reaching the sea, Yuri busied herself feeling the texture of the sand. Unlike the hard-packed dirt ground, she stomped her feet in amusement at how the sand sank under her weight. When she arrived at the entrance where the waves touched, she blankly stared at the crashing waves.
“It’s beautiful…”
Carefully squatting down, she dipped her finger into the seawater and tasted it.
“…Salty.”
“It’s seawater.”
“Isn’t this your first time coming to the sea too, Kail?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you try it too.”
Hearing Yuri’s words, Kail chuckled and took her finger that had touched the seawater, lightly licking it.
Never expecting Kail to lick her finger, Yuri flinched in surprise and looked up at him. Kail slightly furrowed his brow and stuck out his tongue.
“Salty indeed.”
“…Yeah.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah… nyah.”
Her mouth wouldn’t close. Trying to hide her burning red face, Yuri turned her head to gaze far off at the horizon.
Kail smirked, having a rough idea why she was acting this way, then slipped his arm under her armpit and between her thighs, swiftly lifting Yuri up.
“Kyaaak!?”
“If we came to the beach, we gotta do this at least once.”
“Ka, Kail? What are you trying to─!!”
And the next moment, Yuri realized her body had been thrown into the sea. The water rushed into her target hole, leaving a tingling sensation before receding.
Flustered, Yuri quickly regained her balance and stood up, looking like a drowned rat as she glared fiercely at Kail.
Still chuckling, Kail paused when he saw the ice chains gripping his ankles.
“Yuri, something like this can’t possibly─.”
Attempting to easily break the ice chains, Kail inwardly gasped when the very ground beneath him moved, sending him flying.
Since breaking through an Aura Master’s resistance was impossible, she instead manipulated the ground the Aura Master stood on.
Seeing Yuri cleverly bypass the Master’s defenses, Kail happily plunged into the sea.
“Phewha-!”
Shaking the wet hair back, Kail locked eyes with Yuri as she tidied her own hair.
Both now in the sea, what would happen next was obvious without saying.
“Here I go-!”
Kail immediately scooped up water and splashed it towards Yuri. Though it felt like a water cannon attack, Yuri effortlessly manipulated the water to block Kail’s barrage.
At the same time, she lifted streams of water around them, shooting them towards Kail like tentacles.
“Blublublu! Hey, wait—using magic is cheating─.”
Feeling like he was fighting dozens of people alone, Kail swiftly dove underwater and used Aura to swim through it.
He could use Aura to blast through her magic, but doing so might hurt Yuri.
Moving entirely underwater to dodge Yuri’s attacks, Kail swiftly reached her feet and grabbed her leg, causing her to fall over.
Splashhh-! Watching Yuri fall into the sea, Kail burst out laughing, “Hahaha! How dare you challenge the Master─.”
And just like he had been, Kail suddenly fell backward as something pulled his leg.
Yuri had manipulated the underwater currents to pull Kail’s leg.
“Phewuu-.”
“Huuuu…”
Shaking the dripping water from their faces, the two smirked at each other.
And immediately continued their water fight.
After a while, utterly exhausted, the two carefully left the beach and lay down on a bench to rest.
* * *
Gurrrrrrl.
The Sea Deity chewed on deep-sea seaweed to recover from its wound. But even as the Sea Deity, regenerating a punctured eyeball was impossible.
Blinking its eyes, realizing the left half of its vision was gone, the Sea Deity began to grow angry at whatever had injured it. First fleeing from pain and then growing angry—it was a beast-like reaction.
Gurrrrl.
Bubbles frothed from its gills as the Sea Deity glared in the direction of the city where the thing that attacked it lived.
It would never forgive. It couldn’t rest until it repaid the injury in kind.
Having finished recovering, the Sea Deity carefully gathered its strength and rose above the sea. As it did, the seawater drawn up from the deep began to form waves.
Creating a wave tens of meters high, the Sea Deity surged toward the city, hoping the wave would swallow it whole.
* * *
“Kyaaaa-! Stop it pleeeease～.”
“Aha ha, aha hahaha! My baby. Why so feisty?”
After the Sea Deity retreated and the sea reopened, nobles who had disappeared returned one by one, though no one knew where the rumors had spread from.
Kail and Yuri’s monopoly on the beach lasted only a few hours; afterward, with so many people swimming or enjoying themselves, they couldn’t play properly.
But even though they couldn’t unleash their full power in the sea, it didn’t diminish the value of the ocean.
“…My skin feels tingly.”
“You’ve been under the sun too long. If you leave it, you’ll get burned.”
“What should I do?”
“It’s similar to a burn, so casting healing magic should help, right?”
Hearing that, Yuri cast healing magic on herself and collapsed onto the bench. Though not as effective as holy-powered healing, her skin slowly began to recover.
A short while later, her reddened skin returned to its original pale white. After finishing her recovery, Yuri put her coat back on and blankly gazed at the sea.
“Kail.”
“Hmm?”
“I love you.”
“Me too.”
Though it was an unexpected confession, he couldn’t shy away from his fiancée’s declaration of love. Naturally accepting it, Kail smirked and lightly kissed her lips.
Not expecting such public displays of affection outdoors, Yuri’s face lit up again in embarrassment.
But this wasn’t unusual on this beach. After all, there were no nobles here alone; most had brought their lovers along.
‘Ah, she’s really cute.’
Watching his adorable fiancée with a great figure act shy, Kail felt a bit excited. The thought that he would have made a child with her right then if he weren’t underage crossed his mind.
To calm his racing heart, he took a deep breath and gazed beyond the horizon, but soon noticed something strange and cautiously stood up.
“…Kail?”
“What is that?”
Far in the distance, the horizon rippled. No—on closer inspection, it wasn’t rippling. Beyond the horizon, something was approaching.
That something was large enough to blot out the entire city.
Realizing this, Kail swiftly climbed to the top of the tallest spire nearby to confirm what lay beyond the horizon.
“Crazy.”
A tsunami large enough to engulf the entire city was approaching. There hadn’t been any earthquakes or other signs, yet the waves were coming nonetheless… Kail hurried back to the beach, grabbed Yuri, and fled the shoreline.
“Kail?”
Yuri looked at Kail, unsure of what was happening, but Kail urgently packed their belongings from the dormitory and searched for a carriage driver.
By the time they finally found a driver, Yuri shook off Kail’s hand and shouted.
“Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
“We need to escape quickly.”
“Escape? Why all of a sudden?”
“A tsunami is coming.”
“…What?”
As she tilted her head in confusion, the bell atop the spire began ringing wildly, confirming Kail’s words.
Dingdong-! Dingdong-!
─Tsunami! A tsunami is coming!
Amidst the alarm, residents screamed insanely and fled in panic. Yuri cautiously asked Kail,
“…That’s not because of you, is it?”
“What nonsense. How could I summon a tsunami?”
“Now that I think about it, it was strange. How did you know right away that the Sea Deity had retreated?”
Hearing this, Kail hesitated to say he defeated the Sea Deity, recalling the Sea Deity’s abilities—its power to control the sea.
If it could manipulate the sea, couldn’t it create those waves?
Seeing Kail clamp his mouth shut, Yuri muttered, “I knew it,” and turned to head towards the beach.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“A wife must fix her husband’s mistakes.”
“—Which is exactly why you shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Are you trying to run away?”
As if accusing him of turning a blind eye and running away from the consequences of his actions, Yuri glared fiercely at Kail. But Kail sent Yuri behind him and began loosening his shoulders.
“Why should you fix my mistake?”
I should clean up my own mess.
With that thought, Kail stepped forward toward the massive tsunami.
